Green Smoothie = liquid base + leafy greens + veggies + fruit + special ingredients.

Special Note - Some people skip the leafy greens and veggies, and that can be bad news for your health.  Drinking a huge fruit-only smoothie is like pouring sugar syrup right into your guts. Fruit may be healthy, but fruit is loaded with sugar and needs to be taken in moderation.  Grinding up 5 lbs. of fruit sugar into a liquid and pouring it directly into your food-hole is a great way to start off a "Let's get diabetes!" party.  Now, there's nothing wrong with a fruit smoothie per se, just make them a small treat, not a daily habit of gigantic proportions.  Ok, back to the regularly scheduled program...

Liquid Base. Water, ice, coconut or almond milk, and Odwalla Superfood (a sweet mix of some crazy-healthy ingredients). Mix and match any of the above to make the smoothie runny enough to be blendable.

Leafy Greens. I stick with two basics: Kale and mixed baby greens. You can easily use spinach as well. Leafy greens are the whole point of the smoothie, so don't skimp. People don't eat anywhere near enough leafy greens, and putting them in a fruit smoothie is the an amazing way to sneak them in your diet. They improve your health so dramatically, any way you can find to chomp on more of them is fantastic.

Veggies. I always throw in some carrots. On occasion I will put in a piece of a beet or a chunk or yellow, red, or orange bell peppers, which are actually very sweet. Green bell peppers don't taste good in a smoothie, BTW.

Fruit. In a Green Smoothie, fruit is more of an accesory to make the leafy greens and veggies taste better. I usually add two pieces of whole fruit or the equivilant amount of smaller fruits. Examples include bananas, apples, oranges, blueberries, strawberries, lots of stuff, really. I simply grab what's available and use it. I also always throw in some grapes because they work great as a natural sweetener.

Special ingredients. To make the smoothie truly super green, I throw in a tablespoon or two of spirulina. To add some kick to the flavor, I'll squeeze in a little fresh lime, toss in some Ginger, and even put in a little cilantro (another leafy green!).  To add in some healthy fats, I'll put in some avocado and/or Vega EFA oil.

How to Drink/Store. I pour as much of the smoothie as possible into a liter bottle and put that in the fridge. The leftover goes into a sports bottle with some ice and water. I sip on the sports bottle throughout the day. When it gets empty, I refill it with more smoothie mix and ice water.  It's all gone by early evening.

You might be thinking all this is too much, and it is.  I just stick to the formula and grab what's available in my kitchen.  No smoothie has all the stuff listed above.  I never make the same smoothie day-to-day and I never measure out the ingredients on purpose; each one tastes slightly different and that's good. For example, I bought a couple of pears and some strawberries this week and I'm using those as my main fruits instead of the banana and orange that I usually use.

You don't need a green smoothie daily.  What you do need is leafy greens and veggies.  The green smoothie is just a tasty and convenient way to do it.  If you eat a green salad or two a day, you probably have your green bases covered, so don't think this is the only way.  Enjoy!

Recently, I was asked by one of my students if there was anything they could do to help them get ready for staying in aero position on the bike for long races like 70.3 and the Ironman distance. I smiled and told him, "Yes."

I don't think he knew what he was asking for when he asked if we could spend a couple of classes working on being comfortable for long periods of time in aero position. Last month I wrote about a pose called Malasana, or Garland Pose, which is essentially a deep squat. At any rate, we were using Malasana in order to both open the hips and experience a greater connection to our feet which can be useful in running for moving with greater ease (especially after a hard bike leg) and generating more power resulting from greater range of motion.

Like many yoga poses Malasana can be a preparation for or a segue into other more challenging but very useful poses. And as it turns out it can also be a great beginning to an exploration of getting and staying aero on the bike. So what we are going to do over the next few posts is move from Malasana into a few more poses that can be added in sequence to promote the necessary bodily transformations that can make long bike legs less difficult from a positioning standpoint which in turn, ultimately, can lead to more efficient runs.

The next pose we explore in our sequence of aerodynamic building yoga poses is a pose called Bakasana or Crow Pose. The reason this pose is so important in our quest for aerodynamics is that it can promote the necessary core integration we need to support our torso out on the aerobars. Although in yoga Bakasana is an arm balance and when you first see it you might think it is a pose for strengthening the arms. Nothing could be further from the truth. By and large arm balances in yoga are core cultivators. And for our purpose of getting aero and being comfortable on the bike, Bakasana can train us to properly engage our core to provide the "lift" we need to comfortably maintain a flat back.

To come into Bakasana, we start in Malasana - a deep squat with our heels together. Place your palms on the floor out in front of you about a foot and a half away from your feet. You want your knees up even with your triceps. Shift your body forward bringing your weight fully onto your hands. Bending your elbows keep shifting more and more of your weight into your hands while keeping head up and your gaze on the floor in front of you. With your body centered over the palms, try bringing one foot off the ground. Engaging your core by bringing your navel in and up toward the spine as though you are lifting and filling the area near the kidneys with air. It is this internal movement that provides the lift in the hips and keeps the knees high up on the triceps. Technically for our purposes, you could stop at this point and work the pose by alternating between lifting your right and left feet off the ground and bringing them up toward your hips. Trust me 3 to 5 reps with each foot is a workout.

If you are comfortable with balancing on your hands and have no problem with the pose while one foot is on the ground, then try taking both feet off the ground at the same time. Again, be sure to keep your head up with your gaze out in front of you and in between your hands. If you have open hips and can get the sense of lift through your core you may find you are able to get quite a bit of height in the pose. If so try holding the pose for about 6 to 8 unhurried breaths before bringing our feet back to the ground.

If for some reason the arm balance doesn't work for you, say balance is an issue, or you have weak wrists, you can still reap the benefits of the pose by taking the balance aspect out of it and practicing Bakasana on your back. In fact almost all yoga arm balances can be practiced while on your back allowing you to strengthen the core as you work your way up toward practicing the actual arm balance.

Coming into Bakasana on your back is very similar to practicing it upright. Start with your heels together and your knees apart. Your back will be flat against the ground. First you will rotate your pelvis up toward the ceiling which will cause your knees to rotate toward your shoulders. Now, as if you were doing crunches, bring your shoulders off the floor and move the torso up toward your knees. Hook your elbows on the insides of your knees and draw your navel down and in toward your spine. This will assist in deepening the fold. Hold the position for anywhere from 4 to 8 breaths, then relax. Repeat the movement 3 to 5 times. Working Bakasana regularly, aside from being a neat trick you can show your Tri-minded friends, will give you the core awareness and integrity that we will need for the next pose in our aero building sequence. There aren't to many issues with practicing Bakasana other than wrist issues and fear of falling so if you have any reservations, try the version where you explore the pose on your back for a while. I actually find that version more difficult. Until next time, train well....

I definitely fall in this camp.  I grew up being told by my parents that processed foods were crap, but I wasn't aware that there is a sliding scale as far as what's processed.

You might think that only "junk food" like Fritos is processed.  True, but paleo diet fans believe that even bread is processed food.  You can't find bread growing on a bush and it only comes after the ingredients are processed by man with crushing, grinding, soaking, mixing, baking, and more, making it one of the first processed foods on Earth.  

The end result is bread, which does have lots of calories and helped man get to where he is today, but is also a chief source of wonky nutrition that is giving us excess calories and loads of health problems.  

Some people are having a lot of success with their nutrition by going back to more primal diets which are a better fit for our digestive systems.  Raw foods have the most nutritional potential before they are "processed" away, but the trick is switching over your taste buds to enjoy them.  You also have to change your shopping and cooking habits  (or lack thereof).  

I am enjoying the challenge.  On one hand, it is different, which is fun.  On the other, it's surprising how the mind clings to one pattern, then adopts it, then decides that the new is better than the old when the old was previously judged as the best way just a short while ago.

The most amusing part is that eating like a crudavore feels like a lost art.  It wasn't that long ago that we all ate that way most of the time, but ask a modern American to do it and they wouldn't be able to assemble an entire meal of raw foods before heading to Stop N Go for a mini-pizza.  Just like swimming and running is rarely done by us out of necessity nowdays, eating "old school" style might be a behavior that makes us feel more alive, healthy, and purposeful on this planet.

An interesting thing to observe is if you actually have an empty mouth before you take your next bite.  Many of us still have half a bite left in there while we are cramming in a whole new one, myself included.

In the quest for a better power to weight ratio for triathlon, it seems there's an unending array of ways we can eat and treat ourselves better.  Most interesting is that they are almost all common sense; you just have to apply yourself and break bad habits.

Just like you can go overboard with overeating, you can also get too thin and that compromises your performance as well.  For example, Chrissie Wellington has commented that she makes sure she doesn't go below a certain weight because a lack of body fat will sink you in the swim.  This couldn't be more true. The "owner's manual" for greyhound dogs says to never let them swim in deep water because they will sink like a stone.  They don't have enough body fat to keep afloat!

I noticed spirulina on the ingredients label of nearly every superfood concoction around. I googled it and figured out this is some great stuff, then wondered why you never hear about it.

Well, I ordered some of it in bulk powder and quickly found out why it's not so popular. First, it doesn't taste great. It's not bad, kinda like how mullets aren't bad (just not good), but you wonder if maybe there's a dead shrimp somewhere in the container.

Second, the powder is super fine, like chalk dust, and gets everywhere. Turning over the tablespoon to dump some in a smoothie is like creating your own green Arizona sand storm.

Lastly, your lips and teeth will be bright green until you rinse your mouth out. If you're still in fourth grade or work in IT, it's a great way to show off to or freak out friends.

The upside is that it has so much nutrition, there's a warning label on the side saying taking too much will kill you. That's the kind of razor's edge I like to ride!

Spirulina - Pond scum that may be just too awesome for mankind.

I had to stop halfway through Saturday and pile on lots more calories than normal.  There's day-to-day caloric intake and then there's caloric intake for crazy workout mode.  I get grumpy and sleepy when I'm not taking in enough.  I ate a pile of starchy salty goodies and took a short nap, then felt amazing and was back out the door.

Having stacked 6 hour days, I'm now in complete awe of how people like John Hirsch and Chrissie Wellington can do so ad nausem.  The strategy is to stay in Zone 2 as much as possible, not overexerting, but you certainly feel it by the end of day two.

I thought for sure that I'd have plenty of time to do other stuff, but the time it takes to support a 6 hour workout day is far more than you'd think.  There's the food, fixing flats, changing clothes, wretching...  

On the leanness front, eating super healthy foods instead of bad ones continues to pay off.  There's not much more fat to lose around here.  I need to dig up a picture of me quite a few years ago where I look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy on roller blades and compare that to one I took this weekend.  I weighed around 48 more lbs. then.  

If you asked me to strap on a 40+ lb. weight belt and do this weekend's workouts, I'd have said no thanks.  I'd have done it anyway, but I'd still be cursing no thanks as I went thudding down the street.

Eating healthy and not overeating is a habit that takes time.  You see a little bit of payoff and that motivates you.  You also begin to find and crave decent replacements for bad food splurges.  Eventually, those become the norm and you lose the interest in the bad stuff.  It's a great day worth celebrating when you actually prefer a salad over a milk shake.  

Vegans skip a few more items than vegetarians - no animal products whatsoever, including dairy and eggs.  I've been eating vegan for two weeks and haven't noticed any problems.  If anything, I'm more healthy and energetic because I eat more of the stuff that's really good for you - fruits, veggies, and nuts.

I wouldn't classify myself as a vegan per se.  I'm more of a paleo diet guy without the meat part. I'm a little apprehensive of taking a stand on this position because being for something puts you against everything else.  I don't mind if you eat meat and I don't have much interest in arguing with people about it.  I'd have to eat vegan for more than two weeks to identify myself with it strongly!

Back to performance.  Two weeks of veganism is definitely enough time to see if it has an impact on performance.  Yep, no problems.  In fact, I'm learning some interesting tools to pass on to you guys:

• Protein is built from amino acids.  Your body assembles them as needed from a collective "pool".  Non-meat items have all the amino acids that you need and your body puts them in the pool to be used when needed.  Where this pool is actually located and how much chlorine is in it, I still don't know. Maybe somebody can fill us in with some comments below.
• Nuts and healthy oils provide a huge amount of workout punch.  There's twice the ATP (energy) in these guys (fats) than in straight carbs, but it takes a few weeks of eating them for your body to start using them as a serious energy source instead of preferring carbs.
• Nuts taste like meat and cheese after a while.  Meat and dairy craving problem solved.
• Just when you think you know what healthy is, you discover a whole next level, like this guy.  At some point you have to take a mix of ideas from all levels and formulate what works best for you.

It helps me to not avoid certain foods as much as to look for really healthy ones.  I go as much raw fruit and veggies as possible, then fill in the blank spots as needed.  

I have to say, I feel great.  I've carried around an extra 20 lbs. for many years and it's melting away.  Eating a truly "clean" and healthy diet eliminates one more mystery variable from the triathlon success formula.  If you can change your bad habits to good and get lean, your workouts, races, self image, and much more clean up and become more effective.  It's nice!

I've been running in these bad boys for almost a week and definitely have some observations. How could you not, with such a different running platform than the norm?

First off, you better have some barefooting or low heel running background or these babies will shred your calves. I used to run barefoot a lot and that certainly helps.

I mention the above because the shoes are ADDICTIVE. You want to keep wearing them because they feel so strange and fun. They are like soft gloves for your feet with a thin layer of the world's finest rubber on the contact patches. You feel like your feet have been injected with monkey steroids and you can do ANYTHING.

They are light and you can go super fast. For me, the faster I go in them, the better my form gets. It's like you can't go fast in them with bad form. There is so much biofeedback, and it amplifies as you go faster, it makes bad form impossible to do.

I've been alternating runs between them and my old shoes so I can get used to them. Tonight's run may have been the breaking point where I can run in them full time.

Thumbs up so far!

For example, fructose is fruit sugar, and glucose is another one that is the end result of carbohydrate digestion.  Excess glucose is converted to glycogen and is stored in the liver and muscles as energy ready to use.

I'm not a nutritionist, but I've learned to be observant of the different types of sugars in my fuels.  Everybody is different, and people digest the different sugars as endurance fuels with a lot of variation.  When you start using a fuel, it's important to look at the sugar source and be aware of how it's different than what you're used to.

As an example, I showed in the last video that I was using agave nectar as a sugar source.  People demonize high fructose corn syrup (55% fructose) as bad for you when agave nectar is 90% fructose itself. What?  So is agave nectar good for you or the worst thing ever made?

I'm not going to tell you which sugars to use, but just wanted to encourage you to do your research.  Look up the different "ose"es you use on the internet and read about how they work.  Some are notorious for being harder to digest when exercising than others, causing stomach distress.  I experience the "Gatorade Gut Bomb" if I drink only gatorade as fuel for long events.  Some people are fine with it.

If you are looking to optimize and improve your long distance performance, know the types of sugars you are taking in and start looking at some other options.  One of my favorite sugars to use as an example is honey. It has a wide array of different types of "ose" in it:  

Levulose?  What is that? Levulose is the raw sugar from fruit before being stripped of enzymes and minerals and turned into fructose by man.  Wow, this gets weirder by the minute!

If you'd like to really geek out on this topic, here is an interesting read.  

Some people have strong opinions on sugars and I encourage you to share them in the comments.  Enjoy, and be sweet!

Summary: My energy levels fade after about two hours.  You can see where I supplement calories and energy levels come back up.

The Good: You can see how workouts in a controlled environment allow for great analysis of what you need to go long.  I'm fueling every 15 minutes and staying at an even effort level that I can sustain for a long time.

The Bad: Even though my fuel intake was precise, I never bothered to see how many calories it was before I even started.  Post analysis showed it to be 200 calories per hour.  Bumping it up to 300 calories per hour mid-ride allowed for me to get back to performing at a nice level.

Other Notes: Heart rate is a great reflector of how you're doing. If you can't sustain a given HR, you're either bonking or dehydrated.  If your speed (indoors) or power (indoors or out) falls off and at the same HR or both of those fade, you're in trouble.

How to Use This Data: This type of software exists so you can analyze what went right or wrong during a workout so you can fix it on the next one.  For me, I'm using this dataset to ride the next ride at 300 calories per hour the whole time and see if that slump goes away.  The effort level was in my Zone 2, which tells me I should be able to sustain this for 112 miles (an Ironman bike distance).  A little later in the season, I will extend this ride to 5 hours and then run afterwards to ensure that the fueling pattern is sustainable for a full Ironman.  In the meantime, I'll also start adding electrolyte sources into the fuel for cramp reduction in hotter conditions.  It's also important to notice how I am able to calculate exactly how many calories were involved.  Many athletes train long and have no idea what's happening and then can't replicate great training results during a race.  The longer the event, the more important it is to remove any guessing.